74 HILL TRIBES OF FORMOSA, 
“Pellew.” It was very singular that an officer on board the British 
sunboat then in port, who was struck with the appearance of the 
men, and who had been at the Pellew Islands, at once recognised 
their resemblance to the natives of those parts. It was subse- 
quently ascertained that these men had been driven by bad wea- 
ther from their fishing grounds, had drifted about for some time, 
had finally been caught in a storm lasting twelve days at a stretch, 
had been carried before the wind all that time, had subsisted chief- 
ly on cocoa-nuts and fish, and had finally, after many days—how 
many was never definitely understood—-arrived within sight of the 
inviting and pretty harbour of Kelung. It was very fortunate 
that they landed at Kelung, for they found friends who were so 
interested in them as to furnish them with food and clothing; a 
subscription was started, and they were forwarded eventually to 
Hongkong, then to their own country, in rather a roundabout 
way, but; as far as I know, they were taken back to the Pellew 
Islands. 
It struck me very forcibly at the time that if Pellew Islanders 
in open boats could fetch formosa, the island might not have 
looked, in former years, so far for an addition to its population. 
Had these men been wrecked on the East Coast, or had they sought 
shelter where savages lived, they might, if their lives had been 
spared, have settled down, they might have intermarried and assist- 
ed more than ever in mixing and confusing the breed of the island, 
or rather that part of it occupied by the hill tribes on the Hast 
Coast and central Mountains. 
In addition to the foregoing instances of how the island popula- 
tion may have originated and subsequently become intermixed by 
various accidental causes, there is still one other important point 
to be considered. It is well known to Captains of vessels who 
have sailed past the South Cape of Formosa and along the East 
Coast on their way to Kelung or Tamsui, that, at no great distance 
from the shore, a warm current of varying breadth, called the 
Black Stream, or Ku-ro-si-wo, sweeps along at a good pace towards 
the North, assisting very materially vessels bound in that direction. 
In fact, in what is called the “old schooner days” (when steam- 
ers were almost unknown at Tamsui), sailing vessels were fre- 
